Many of you will today be seeing this forum for the first time. I've decided it's time to expand the testing circle for the Countdown game everyone's talking about*. As my most trusted Countdowners, I'm giving a select subset of you the chance to play the game before almost anyone else. In return, please be aware that the program is still in "beta", which means that stuff might not work optimally or at all, and might change at any time. That said, testing feedback so far has been very encouraging. The program certainly won't damage your computer or anything bad like that. The worst that can happen is that the program falls over during a crucial conundrum or disallows your favourite word.

If you'd like to play, you'll need Java. You probably already do; if not, installation is simple, just head over to java.com. Once you have Java, point your browser to apterous.org and register yourself. You'll need the signup key, which is othello. Please don't share this key with people outside this group -- the program is still very much in private test. Find yourself someone to play against and give it a go. If you're having problems or have questions, please consult the (brief) FAQ and, if that doesn't answer your question, email me. If you'd like to report bugs or give other feedback then please head over to the apterous sub-forum, which you should now have access to.

My dad said he wanted to play against me but he couldn't sign up as he needed a sign up key. What is this sign up key? You can pm direct if need be - just let me know when you've done it and so I can tell him to come online and check!